One
day while meandering around aimlessly in Staten Island, we
stumbled onto the vacant remains of the U.S. Lighthouse Service Depot...
a really fascinating, historic site that has lain nearly-forgotten by
most for many, many years. While there was no way for us to explore the insides
of these majestic old structures (the entire place was surrounded by
really high fence, and on top of that the lower level entrances had
been totally cemented over), their outsides were so intriguing, and
the entire place just so... interesting, we decided to just
wander through the huge, silent compound to see what we could see...

Located along
the North Shore Esplanade, the Lighthouse Depot used to be the
central base of operations for the national Lighthouse Board
during an era when lighthouses were of vital importance to the
security and well-being of the country. The Depot designed and
supplied U.S. lighthouses for nearly a century, starting in 1862.

There were so many huge,
incredibly designed buildings remaining on the site- my favorite,
the elegantly decrepit Administration
Building (above & below), is not only on the
National Register of Historic Places, it is also a designated New
York City Landmark... it's such a very cool looking
building. It was built in 1869 for the offices of the
Superintendent and Engineer of the Lighthouse Depot and their
staff.

And just as historic are the
Vaults- the granite masonry storage vaults built into the
hillside behind the buildings... they were probably built
mid-1870's, and were used for storing volatile lighthouse fuels.
On one side of the Administration Building lay the
Barracks (below, left 2 pics)- the oldest building at
the Lighthouse Depot (built 1864). Behind the Barracks sits the
laboratory, a smaller structure that was used by engineers to
experiments with different lamp designs and to test fuels...

On the other side of the
Administration Building lay the old
lamp shop (above, right 3 pics), built in 1868 for
assembly and repair of lighthouse lenses- some of which were
nearly 18 feet tall and weighed thousands of pounds. It's first
floor was built at double-height with semi-circular bays in the
floor above so that the gigantic lenses could be assembled and
repaired from two levels; the two-story-high
windows on the south wall provided much-needed light for the
immense workshop.

The new
lamp shop (above) was built in 1907 when the depot
outgrew it's lamp shop; this huge building had space for blacksmith,
tinsmith, and other workshops and storage rooms.

The next intriguing old structure
we came across as we wandered through the Depot was the machine
shop (above, upper left), which was built in 1912; it was
a foundry where lightship anchors, chains, buoys, sinkers, and parts
for lighthouse fabrication were made. Looming up behind it, we saw
what appeared to be an enormous, spooky deserted condo
building (above, lower row). A tattered banner
advertising lofts for sale still fluttered from it's wall, despite
the obvious, desolate decay of the place; we couldn't find any
history on the condo building anywhere, so it's presence and
condition remains a mystery.

When we reached the very far end of the esplanade
we went up onto a really awesome 'lighthouse
bridge' which has unfortunately has been kinda screwed up by the
graffiti of vandals, but is nevertheless still pretty neat... great
view from up there. As we left the Lighthouse Depot, we looked
back and noticed that we could barely see the entire place from the
street level, it's really hidden away down by the water's edge and
surrounded by overgrown foliage, and a red brick wall studded with
iron stars. If you didn't know what was there you might not even give
it a second glance, I'm glad we found it and got to check it out. All
in all, it was a very interesting place.

In 1939 the Coast Guard took over
maintenance of the nation's lighthouses, and thus the duties at the
depot. Eventually, lighthouses took on less of a role in navigation
aid, and the site became the Coast Guard's Third District
Headquarters. It was abandoned in 1968 when the Coast Guard acquired
Governors Island.The National
Lighthouse Museum now plans to restore the site and establish a
lighthouse museum there... check out their site for more details, and
lots of fascinating history, including some great old photographs of
the Depot.

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